


Years in the Future...

by BagtheBagisnotaBag, Grubbutts



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alternian Invasion, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pale Polyamory (Homestuck), Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-18 19:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17586929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BagtheBagisnotaBag/pseuds/BagtheBagisnotaBag, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grubbutts/pseuds/Grubbutts
Summary: It is the year 2164, 13 years after the humans of Earth made first contact with an alien race, and an asteroid crash lands in Texas…Karkat Vantas lands on Earth in a ball of flaming light, a controlled descent through Earth’s atmosphere in his tiny stolen escape pod. It’s there in the harsh dry desert of the foreign planet that he meets two aliens; a John-human and Dave-human.Despite not knowing him they take him home, despite his harsh nature they protect him from the human Enforceassassins who wish capture him.They are kind when they don’t need to be and comfort him as he adjusts to his new life away from anything he has ever known. Is this the human disease they call friendship? Or is it pity, pure, sweet, and pale.





	Years in the Future...

A bright streak of light appears in the sky above the car, bathing the dusty night time back roads with a pale red light. John swerves slightly on the road, momentarily distracted from his driving by the distant moving ball of fire high in the sky above them. The sight and the sudden jerk of the car being forced back into its lane jolts Dave out of his monologue about trains or something. 

“What the fuck is that.” Dave says, somehow keeping his voice a steady monotone. His arm is braced across John’s chest. He slapped it there as the car swerved, stopping John from flying forward.

It’s a sweet gesture of protection but John is too busy staring with his mouth slack at the distant blaze of light ahead of them. “I think it’s a meteor? It’s pretty big.” John squints against the sudden brightness. He is pretty sure it’s a meteor. With the angle it’s falling it looks like it will land somewhere behind them. Dave retracts his arm and pats him on the shoulder to get his attention. 

“Fuck, it’s huge. It’s like the dinosaurs all over again. One flying space rock and suddenly the astronauts are coming back to a barren wasteland. And here we are driving towards it.” Dave says. John can’t tell if he sounds tense or not. 

They are driving towards it, though at a fraction of their former speed, moving slowly down the middle of the dusky desert road, and John would be more concerned about the way he was causing an obstruction of traffic if there were any other cars on the road, any at all! But alas, they are very much the only people for miles around. 

He squints at the distant ball of flaming space rock, “Is it getting bigger?” 

Dave pulls in a sharp breath. “Oh, damn. It is. It’s heading right this way. Holy shit John why the fuck are we just sitting here.” 

John glances sideways at Dave. _Now_ he sounds tense. “It’s fine, It’s going to miss us, look. It’s heading to the right.” And as they watch it accelerates towards them, well, to the right of them, flying by with a surprising burst of speed as it falls at an angle low to the ground and disappears behind a jagged outcropping of rock. A dull boom follows it a few seconds later. 

No aftershocks blow their car away. 

John lets out his held breath.

It is a dull, anticlimactic impact.

John and Dave share a significant look before, without a word, John reverses, turns, and heads off-road towards the outcropping were he lost sight of the meteor. With his headlights on full beam John peers into every shadow. He knows the vague direction it fell but with every curve and detour around the uneven dusty rocks and ridges, that vague knowledge of descent location gets more and more uncertain. They keep creeping along through the sparse dry land, eyes searching.

But John shouldn’t have worried, a wisp of smoke in the distance gives away the meteors impact site. 

“Fuck, bro. There it is,” Dave says. John grins and turns the car towards the slowly curling trail of smoke.

***

Karkat Vantas regrets so many things. This is a fact that will be immortalized in the history book for thousands of sweeps to come. The poets will write rapliloquies about the many things Karkat regrets and right now, at the top of that list, is his decision to strand himself here on this lump of a space rock. 

The inside of the escape pod is dark with only the faint glow of emergency buds illuminating the tight space. The spherical pod has room for only one passenger. It also has no windows as Karkat was too much of a squarkbeast to go playing with the controls in case he accidently turned the autopilot off. He didn’t need to see outside the claustrophobic little pod that badly. 

Karkat slaps his hand against the escape nodule latch and it opens with a hiss of air. It’s his first breath of unfiltered air since he left Alternia and he starts coughing as, with the air, a plume of dust and smoke gets sucked into his little craft. The Earth-planets air streams in through the hull opening. There is no going back now.

 _At least being here, alive and distanced from his tyrannical home planet, is better than being culled._ The stray thought surprises even Karkat, never one to look on the bright side. He may regret the lungful of putrid, dust laden earthen air but it is still better than the sharp gasps of fear he had sucked down at the sight of the culling drones descending on his wrigglerhood home. He shudders at the memory, still coughing, and leverages the hull latch up and open where it thuds against the side of his stolen ship. 

A slowly moving breeze barely ruffles his hair, carrying with it the strange scents of the alien planet around him. It smells dry with only the faintest traces of sparse plant life. That is if Earth plants smell anything like Alternian plants. It’s hard to tell anything at all at this first whiff of another planet. For all he knows this could be the smell of dusty dry earth poison! He knows the planet has a breathable atmosphere but who knows if _this particular_ part of the planet is habitable to Trolls. That would be just his luck. 

He pulls himself further up and out of the ship, cursing as his foot gets tangled in some wires. It takes a second to kick them off but it is a satisfying bust of movement after so long existing in one cramped squat.

He doesn’t bother worrying about damaging the ship with his kicking, this dented smoldering carcass of a ship will never get back off the ground anyway. It is a simple escape pod, nothing more. The vessel has done what he needed it to - he _didn’t_ become a smear on the surface of this new world and for that he is thankful but now he has no need for the pod. He hauls himself out the exit hole and tumbles off the side, landing with a crouch on the dusty packed dirt below. 

Now that he has resigned himself to a new life on this barren wasteland of a planet with no means of escape he should probably start thinking about what he’s going to do from here. He has completed his one desperate goal and he is stumped. He didn’t think he would get this far. That concept has been a troublingly consistent state throughout his Trollhood. He didn’t think he would make it _to_ his adult pupation and when he did he had to franticly slap together this plan so he would survive _past_ his adult pupation. 

Karkat looks up at the single pale moon. 

In the distance the low growl of an alien beast makes itself known and he shudders. A curl of fear settles low in his belly. 

As far as he knew there would have been nothing worse than staying on Alternia as the date of his adult molt grew closer and with it the day his eyes would change to his disgusting mutant red forever. But this is a new planet. Anything could prowl on its dark dusty surface. He crouches behind the wreck of his spacecraft and waits as the deep rumbling growl of the Earth animal grows closer. 

A beam of light pierces through the air, blinding him and the noise of the beast reaches a crescendo. Oh shit. Oh fuck. He should have researched this shitty planet better. All he knew was that Alternian contact had been established but it had yet to be colonized to become part of The Empire. 

But did he consider that maybe there was a reason the Empire hadn't taken this planet by force as soon as Trolls first laid eyes on it? That maybe it was too dangerous? No. He didn’t think of that did he. Past him continues to be a blundering oblivious fool who never manages to predict the deep shit he ends always inevitably up in. He curls up behind the husk of his tiny fallen spacecraft, trembling as a bright light blazes out from the unknown alien beast (He’s hidden from it where he crouched. Thank Fuck) and the deep rumbling roar of the animal fades to a curious hum. 

The creature makes two distinct clicking sounds, not dissimilar to the sound of a hive door opening and Karkat curls further into his protective huddle, inching further into the dark recesses of his ship away from the bright light. His eyes water even though they are slitted thin. Fucking hell, light is like a Trolls biggest weakness and the first Earth animal he meets is equip with blazing sunbeams for eyes. Typical. 

Karkat flinches at two soft bangs and curls up even tighter into the shade of his ship - if that is even possible. Then voices reach his ears, their speech rounded and soft without the clicks and chirrs of the Alternian language. 

Karkat can’t see the smaller animals from where he has tucked himself into a crevice under the ship but he can see two shadows stretching thin and tall along the ground. As they come closer, their walk nubs crunch with their bipedal movement. 

Fucking grub tits they are coming around to his side of the ship. One of them breaks off from the other and now they are moving in on him from both sides of his ship. They are still speaking to each other as they walk casually closer to where Karkat is hidden. What use is he hiding like this from the first thing he came across. He hasn’t even armed himself. Of course his first instincts are to cower in fear. 

He pulls his sickle out and clutches it in trembling claws. He would get the fuck out of danger but there is nowhere for him to run. The earth desert offers only pitifully small stonenubbins for him to hide behind if he were to even try to evade the two alien creatures. He grips his sickle so hard his knuckles turn ash white and instead of escaping he tries to bury himself further under the pod.

The aliens keep making these strange sounds, grumbles and hisses, back and forth. Karkat’s breath catches in his throat, fear clogging his lungs, as one stops a short distance from his meager cover. All that is protecting him from it’s gaze is an aerial adjuster fin he managed to wedge himself under. 

He was right, the alien is bipedal. And it’s wearing pants? Hang on. Karkat peaks out further, trying to get a better look at the thing. It’s hard to see against the harsh light. 

Those are definitely pants. 

He does a double take. That’s a _whole outfit_ complete with rounded sunshades and a circular symbol sitting center on its shirt. 

Is this planet inhabited by fucking Trolls!? 

Karkat’s stomach flips. He isn’t sure if it’s flipping from nerves or sudden hope. If that’s a Troll he could cull him but this also might be his one change to survive on this harsh planet. He just spent perigees hiding in the hull of a ship with only peanuts and stray sylladex snacks for sustenance to _escape_ Trollkind. On the other grip nub he might not go insane from social isolation if this planet does have more than just an establishing force worth of Trolls on it. He squints up at the Troll. Err. Maybe that isn’t a Troll?

The lack of horns throws him for a loop, not to mention the lusus white of his hair and skin. (Is this a planet where they send reject Trolls instead of just culling them? Fuck he wished he researched Earth more than fucking not at all) The pale Troll does a double take, makes that guttural soft noise again, and startles back a step. 

Oh fuck, he’s looking right at him. Karkat panics. A sharp clicking starts in the back of Karkat's throat sending BACK THE FUCK OFF signals as clearly as he can from his tucked away position. He would lower his horns but then he wouldn't be able to see if the pale Troll decided to attack and it’s not as if Karkat’s horns constitute a threat anyway. Then again, the pale Troll has fucking no horns at all. 

Another Troll (are they even Trolls??) pops up from around the side of the ship, this one lacking the strangely pale colored skin and hair of the first and sporting a blobby symbol Karkat can’t decode. His skin is a sort of off-gray but what color it _is_ Karkat can’t make out against the bright light still coming from the unseen larger beast. This pseudo-Troll is also lacking horns and his eyes glow sickly white behind its normal square glasses (if the first Troll has pale eyes as well he has hidden them behind his shades), Karkat growls at the dark one too, eyeballing both of them in turn. He waves his sickle in their direction and the new pseudo-Troll blinks at him, mouth agape.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008623375/in/dateposted-public/)

***

Dave has frozen. When he and John mutually made the decision to drive off after an Unknown Fucking Flying Object he did not expect to meet an actual real life alien being. 

Right in front of him is in fact a member of the only alien species humans have so far made contact with. A Troll. A fucking _stray Troll_.

He can tell the crouched boy is a Troll. Even hidden in the shadows of the Trolls _fucking spaceship_ his characteristic red, orange, and yellow horns gleam in amongst his glossy black hair and gray skin. He makes a quiet clicking noise, glaring up at Dave with startlingly expressive orange eyes. 

But for all that, he does not look at all like the Trolls Dave has seen before. Those Trolls wore colorfully patterned clothes and stood taller than the tallest human. They had arching intricate horns and skin like charred coal. In comparison, the Troll cowering in front of him is puny. And most interesting of all, the “Troll” doesn’t have the characteristic blue or purple irises and symbols of the Troll race. Instead his irises are gray like his skin and the curving cancer symbol on his shirt. 

These thoughts take only seconds for Dave to process after he first catches sight of reflective cat eyes and sees the Troll boy tucked under part of his ship. Then John is stumbling around the corner after Dave and the Troll is pulling out a weapon - a clawed red blade - and waving it in their general direction. 

“What the fuck.” Dave says, voice flat. John is outright gaping at the alien.

God, the Troll looks so scared where he’s wedged himself under a fin jutting out from the side of the ship. His eyes are wide and startled looking and he’s emitting a low rumbling growl. 

Maybe they should back off a step, give him some room to freak out. Not that Dave is retreating or anything. It’s just a freaky alien with a sicklekind pointed in their direction. 

Are they even allowed to defend themselves in this situation? He doesn't want to inadvertently start intergalactic war or some shit by pulling his swordkind out on some lost alien kid. 

To John he says, “Maybe we should back off a step. Don’t want to scare the little guy.” He pulls John back by the arm, his eyes still on the Troll hidden in the shadows. “Who the fuck is this dude - uh, or whatever the fuck. Like, does the Alternian Embassy even know he exists? Did they lose him or some shit?” The alien chatters at them in his alien language, body tensed with coiled anxiety, his sicklekind still clutched in one of his clawed hands.

John still looks kind of shocked, but has snapped his jaw shut from where it had been gaping open the whole time, “I don’t know, Dave. Maybe we should ring them?” John glances back at the Troll, who is trying to edge away from them around the ship. “Does he even speak English?”

“He doesn’t does he,” Dave runs a hand through his hair, stresing. “Fucking hell. Can you download a translator to your phone. Here’s a weird concept, maybe we can just ask him who the fuck he is and what the fuck he’s doing here in the middle of bugfuck nowhere.” 

John nods, “Great idea!” and is switching through languages on his new app before the Troll can even blind himself on the head beams of their car as he edges around to that side of the ship. 

John clears his throat, “Greetings!” the phone spits out a garbled raspy translation and the Troll freezes. “Welcome to earth.” The phone produces more alien clicks and what sounds like mechanical whirrs. 

“Fucking hell, John. You don’t have to go all old school Sci-Fi nonsense on the Troll’s ass.” John’s phone makes the sounds of a machine coughing its last breath, repeating what Dave just said in Alternian. 

Then a robotic human voice comes out of the machine, “What?” it says. Dave and John both look at the Troll. He clicks and rasps at them, “Who the hell are you fucks?” the calm phone voice says. In huge contrast to the way the Troll is staring at the two of them wide-eyed, trembling, clutching a weapon, and curled in on himself, “And how the fuck is that thing speaking Alternian when you two are spewing garbled nonsense and don’t even have horns.”

“Dude, why the fuck would we have horns, we aren’t Trolls.” 

John nods, “Yeah! We’re Humans. From Earth? The planet you just invaded?”

The Troll goes even more wide eyed, somehow. Looking back and forth between the two of them. 

“I’m John, A Human Being from earth, this is Dave, -”

“Sup.”

“-he is also Human. What’s your name?” John grins at the Troll, holding the phone out towards him like a microphone, as if the extra gesture is needed. 

The Troll straightens himself up a bit, pulling himself to his feet and stowing his blade back in his sylladex. “Karkat Vantas,” the translator says, emitting a more rounded version of the Trolls clipped alien speech. “A Troll from the planet Alternia.”

“But if you’re a Troll, why are you gray?” John says, confused.

Dave can’t help himself. He has to complete the reference. “Oh my god, dude, you can’t just ask people why they’re gray. Fuckin rude.” 

John scowls at him and jabs an elbow in his side. “Don’t mind Dave!” John says to Karkat, “He’s just being a douchbag.” Dave lets out an oof of breath - John is stronger than he looks - and tries not to grin from behind John’s back. 

The Troll - Karkat - looks confusedly between the two of you. “How the fuck was that him being a douchbag? He didn’t even say anything wrong. You’re the one asking me weird fucking questions about my complection! How do you even know what Trolls are supposed to look like!” 

***

Somehow Dave’s shenanigans have bought the Troll out of his scared little huddle, and for that John is grateful. Even if Dave would deny ever watching Mean Girls. 

John is less grateful for the way the Troll is now angry at _him_ for asking about his strange un-Troll-like features. 

Dave pulls out his own phone and brings up a picture of one of the Trolls that have been on Earth for the last 13 years. “Well as far as humankind knows Trolls look like this. It’s not as if you guys have been forthcoming about your species. All we have on Trolls is whatever observational information we can gleam from them when they decide to show their faces on national TV.” 

The Troll in the picture has skin as dark as night and candy colored horns that sweep upwards in looping arcs. She is adorned in a dark outfit with bright highlighting colors that match her deep blue eyes. Karkat stares at the phone screen, ignoring the majority of what Dave is saying. 

“Fuck.” Karkat’s soft mutter carries a lot more emotion than the synthesized translation coming from John’s phone. “That’s a fucking adult. Gog, grubfucking damnit.”

“So you’re a kid then?”

“No! I’m not a fucking wriggler! I just -” Karkat grimaces and looks away. “I won’t be an adult for another quarter sweep at least. That’s why I escaped my hellhole of a home planet. If I were an adult I would be culled on sight.” 

John steps back, shocked. They would kill him? They would kill their own kind. “Wha- why?” 

John turns to look at Dave but Dave stands frozen beside him. Lips pressed into a hard straight line.

“Because I’m a mutant that’s why! My eyes will turn and then everyone will -” Karkat growls, expression blindly furious. “Fuck. I don’t even know why the fuck I’m telling you assholes. For all I know you could turn me in to the cavalreapers yourselves.”

“No, dude-” Dave starts but John drowns him out with his own denial.

“What! We would never do that! We want to help you.” 

“Who are you to show me pity! You don’t know me. You don’t know my life. It’s hard and none of you fucks understand anything about what I’ve been through.” Karkat is trembling now, clenching and unclenching the hand still clutching the sicklekind.

“Dude, Karkat, my man.” Dave looks stressed - cracks of emotion bleeding through his frozen features. “What are you even on about. We’re not, like, looking down on you or whatever. We just want to help.” John nods, letting Dave take the reins. John knows Dave has better tact than him and he doesn’t trust himself not to fuck up these serious negotiations with his first alien encounter. 

“And how the fuck are you going to help me. It’s not like I have any way of escaping them now. If you haven't noticed, my ship is a desiccated pit hole on the face of your alien planet!” Wow, Karkat really gestures a lot when he’s angry. 

“We can hide you.” Dave says shocking Karkat out of his rant. “You can stay at our place until you figure out what to do.”

John nods again. He wouldn’t leave this apparently traumatized Troll out here by himself either.

Karkat seems to think about it for a second, “How do I know _you_ wont sell me out.” 

“You can trust us. One bro to another. You don’t want to stay out here do you? Like if you’re hiding from the adult Trolls they are gonna hella find you if you stay near the fucking spaceship you just fell out of the sky in. I’m pretty sure everyone saw that. We just happen to be the first bro’s to get here.” 

“Yeah!” John adds, “we’ll make sure they don’t find you!” Like fuck is he leaving this Troll all on his lonesome! Plus it’ll be pretty interesting having a Troll adolescent living with them. Imagine all the discoveries they could make! John has already filed those interesting alien noises away in the back of his brain for later contemplation. 

Karkat looks uncertain, eyes darting back and forth between the two of them. His sickle disappears back into his sylladex before he runs both clawed hands through his hair and utters a single barked noise. The translator, in all its generic monotone glory, says “Fuck.”

After a few seconds of expressive facepalming Karkat looks back up at them. “If it's the only way out of this dry as globes desert then fine, I guess I have to go with you. But know that I’m sure as fuck not happy about it.” 

“If you don’t want to come with us you don’t have to.” Dave says.

John starts to nod. Wait - what!. He spins to face Dave, “Dave! Not helping.”

But Karkat scoffs and waves that concept away. “It’s as dry as the Empress’s shriveled nook out here. Anything is better than staying put only to somehow get infected with the earth variant day-walker virus.” He nods decisively “Alright. I’ll go with you.”

“Fuck yeah dude.” Dave says holding out a fist to bump. “Let’s seal that fucking deal with an Earth commitment ritual.”

John grins and holds his own fist out to be bumped. He knows a good prank when he sees one and convincing Karkat of Earth customs that don’t exist is exactly the kind of thing he would do. 

Karkat ponders the two raised fists for a few seconds, looking dubious before shrugging and bumping both of his fists with John and Dave’s at the same time. John’s prankster's gambit quivers in excitement. This is going to be so good. 

***

The humans lead Karkat back to their sun-beam death-contraption talking all the while through their inorganic translator grub which looks oddly like a palmhusk. Somehow he forgets to be terrified of the death-contraption and gets inside. 

The automechanical transport carriage rolls over the ground with a rumbling hum similar to the drag of a spacecraft moving through a planet's atmosphere. As well as introducing karkat to this machine, the Humans tell him all about Earth, the new planet he guesses he calls home. 

Home in the sense that he lives here now and can never leave.

Earth is oddly similar to Alternia in the strangest of ways. The dirt looks the same, familiar beasts in unfamiliar colors roam familiar grasslands. Even the Humans are Troll shaped. As they are transported further into the city hives cluster in familiar ways. These similarities fascinate him.

The humans in turn want to know all about Karkat. The John human never ceases to stop asking questions. Karkat somehow ends up divulging a lot more about his biology and home-life than he ever has before and makes sure to interject often enough to get answers to his own burning questions. 

The Humans technology is almost entirely mechanical but runs in a strange parallel to Trollkind. The humans themselves are scarily similar to Trolls though the bright lights that swamp Karkats vision from all over the city are apparently to compensate for the humans night-blindness. 

Then the question moves on to Dave and John themselves. Dave and John are quadrentmates though the device that is translating for everyone can’t seem to tell Karkat exactly what quadrant they are in. That leads Karkat to ask about how exactly they have an Alternian to English translator just lying around which then leads to Karkat discovering that the contact that Trolls made with this planet lingers still. There is a colony of Trolls on-planet that Karkat assumes are here for some sort of scouting mission before the Empire gets around to conquering Earth. 

John calls it a “Trans-Galactic Embassy” and not the early stages of Alternian invasion but Karkat is not fooled. The Condesce wouldn’t leave a perfectly good planet unconquered. 

The invasion force must be where Dave got the picture of that adult - of course the only Trolls enlisted into the prestigious job of a Scoutbrainwasher are aristocratic blue-bloods and above. If Karkat’s life has been bountiful with one thing it’s hemoracism. 

Only a short amount of time passes before they’re stopping and Karkat looks around in interest at what will end up being his temporary hive. “Is this it?” he asks and the human palm husk hisses and grunts out the translation.

“Is this what?” the Dave human replies from his prestigious seat at the front of the craft. “Is this our shared hive cluster? Fuck no, Dude. This is just a transport carriage cross roads. We have to stop to let the other transports carriages through that are going diagonal ways to us.” 

John snort laughs from his helm seat. 

“Oh. Well fuck me for not knowing the intricacies of human ground transport. I should have assumed that transport carriages have to start and then stop again endlessly before you get to your destination. Next time I’ll be more considerate about all the ignorance I’m spewing.” Karkat says but his ire only causes John to laugh harder. 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008623665/in/dateposted-public/)

John calms down just as the transport carriages idling around them starts moving again. It must be their turn to cross now. “Gosh, you are such a funny guy, Karkat. It’s going to be great having you around.” 

Karkat wasn’t meaning to be funny but can’t help his responsive smile when John grins at him through the dash reflector pane. Maybe these humans won't be so bad. They haven’t culled him so far. Honestly them being so nice to him might be equally unnerving.

After many stops and starts they make it back to the humans hive cluster which ends up being just as brightly lit as the rest of the human city had been.

“Fuck. Is everything this fucking bright on Earth. Like I know you’re all diurnal and shit but can you try calming down the lights just a little?” Karkat says as they step into the entryway of the hive cluster.

“Yo if it's bothering you enough to complain about it you can I can throw you a pair of shades. I can do the hospitality thing. All you gotta do is ask and you shall receive. I don’t want you sufferin’ when there was a solution staring me in the face the whole goddamn time.”

“Do you always babble this incessantly.” Karkat grumbles. “A simple ‘yes’ would have sufficed.”

“Ha ha, he does actually!” John says patting Dave on the shoulder.

The light glints off Dave's shades as he tilts his head towards John. “Rude.”  
They make it to a set of metal doors where John presses a button on the wall and settles in to wait. Karkat decides not to think about it.

“But yes,” Karkat says, “I do actually appreciate the offer. I prefer being able to see - just a standard state of being rather than being blinded constantly by your Human light fetish.”

“Cool, man.” Dave says and produces an identical set of sun shielders to the ones on his face. 

Karkat perches them hesitantly on his nose. The light in the room dims substantially letting him open his eyes fully for the first time since he landed on this rock. “Fucking brilliant. They work.”

“Hey, Don't mention it.”

“Yeah, Karkat, if you need anything else just ask.” The metal doors open and he follows them into a small closed space. A shuttle? No, wait. He’s not thinking about it. “Our hive is your hive and all that jazz!” Gog, John grins so much. Karkat would think it was a trait of his species if and only if Dave had smiled like at all since Karkat met him. 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008624215/in/dateposted-public/)

What he doesn't understand is why they are being so nice to him. He doesn't know whether to duck his head and blush (an unthinkable reaction which could get him culled back on Alternia) or counter their unsolicited pale advances with aggression.

He follows them in a daze through the buildings maze of hallways until they finally stop at one of the hundred identical plain white doors and John starts fiddling with the lock.

“I assume this is your place and you’re not breaking and entering.” Karkat says.

“No Karkat, we rescued you just to get purposely arrested less than an hour later.” The sarcasm doesn't carry through John's Palm husk but the look on his face more than makes up for any technological disadvantage. It seems this _is_ their hive block.

“No need to talk down to me.”

“It's a bit hard not to at your stature-” Dave interjects.

“Shut your gaping word hole.” Who the fuck is this dude. One second he's lending Karkat his spare shades next he's bad mouthing his physiology. The emotional back and forth is widely confusing. Just what quadrant is he angling for?

Karkat follows the two humans inside grumbling all the while. The hive looks like a normal meal block slash living block but alien-ified. The seats lack the usual shine of carapace and the window shades are thin, leaking in even the weak nighttime city lights.

He feels like light is going to be a big issue on this planet.

Also the talking thing. That is a real pain in the ass. That portable human translation grub is infuriatingly inefficient in portraying his extreme level of ire, and he’s sure the translations are shit too. He is proud of how colorful his language can get and doesn't want it watered down by bad software.

“So what's the plan now. Do I just sit in your hive for the rest of my days until I waste away from hyper concentrated boredom?”

***

“Nah dude, there ain't gonna be any boredom here. You can do whatever the fuck you need to to be comfortable. Our home is your home and all that jazz.” Dave says. He can't be looking inhospitable or nothing. He has some manners regardless of what John says.

“What. You were being serious about that?” Karkat says looking a degree more surprised than Dave's words warrant. 

“Of course!”John says, “We even have a couch you can sleep on and everything.” John gestures excitedly to the ratty old couch they have sitting in front of the equally ratty TV. 

“Oh.” Karkat says, looking slightly shell shocked. “Why are you being so nice to me? Is this some kind of game?” 

“Nah bruh. This is honest genuine sincerity. I can't speak for John on this one but I couldn't just leave you all miserable and alone in the middle of bugfuck nowhere. That would be outright unconscionable. You feel me.” 

Karkat seems to think about that for a second, looking back and forth from Dave’s stoic exterior and John's almost aggressive nodding. “Ok. Right. Uhhhh. I don't know what to do from here. Did you two have plans before you found me? I assume whatever they were I thoroughly ruined them anyway with my mere unexpected presence.” 

“We were heading back anyway you didn’t crash our date or anything. I don’t have plans for the rest of the night except maybe to get some mixing done.” Karkat nods and looks at John.

“Well I'm pooped.”John says, “I think I'm going to catch a few z's and-maybe-finish-that-assignment-that's-due-tomorrow.”

“Dude. You haven't done that yet?” Dave says. John had told him that he had finished that essay like a week ago. John ignores him and continues talking.

“Soooooooo, I'll grab some spare blankets for you and we can all think on this whole alien debacle till the morning. Sounds good?” John goes over to the cupboard and pulls out a few of their spare blankets. 

“I'm fucking nocturnal you prick. But you know what actually, yes. It would be nice to have some time alone to think about all this. And you said I could make myself comfortable? You won't go into a bloodthirsty rage if I make a pile to sleep in out of some of your random shit?” 

“Go ahead, Karkat. Whatever the hell what you said means.” John says dumping the blankets on the couch.

With that John’s sudden spike in hospitality seems to leave him. John goes to take his phone with him and then pauses. “We may have a slight problem.” Karkat, who was just in the process of grabbing coasters and game conTrollers off of the coffee table for whatever reason, freezes.

“You said I could use whatever! Did I somehow stumble upon the only things in the room that are not in the vicinity of whatever?!”

“No you're all good Karkat. It's just that I need to take my phone back now and that's a problem because then you can't talk.”

“We could just order a proper voice translator.” Dave comments. “We have the power. The technology exists. The only problem I see is that the technology doesn't exist within the vicinity of this house yet. And that is a very easy problem to solve.”

“Of course! Why didn't I think of that?” John says. “I'll order one right away.” He picks up his phone and starts playing with it.

“Sooooo. You don't need _me_ to do anything do you?” Karkat says wandering around their lounge picking up every loose thing he finds, John's phone now multitasking as both a translator and online shopping medium.

“Nah, it's chill. John's sorting it. You just hang tight and continue gathering all the random junk lying around our living room.” Karkat plonks his load down on the sofa then gets righty back to scavenging through their stuff “Why are you doing that by the way.”

“For sleeping in, why else?” Dave eyeballs the biology textbook Karkat just added to his pile on the sofa. There is a jumble of assorted stationery and odd shoes already in there.

“Well.” Dave nods as if he understood whatever the fuck Karkat just insinuated. “You do you, man. Don't let me stop you.”

“Got it!” John says suddenly from where he’s fiddling with his phone. “The collar should be here in the morning. I got fast delivery because I really want my phone back but Karkat you keep it until the collar gets here so you can communicate if you need anything tonight!”

“Wait, wait, wait. Why the everloving fuck did you get me a collar! I'm not your pet! I'm not wearing that.” Karkat looks stricken from where he has half clambered on top of his pile of John and Dave’s stuff.

“It's just a translator, Jesus.” John rolls his eyes. “I'm not some sort of perv. It will change your voice into whatever language it's loaded up with. Like the phone app we've been using but more instantly and with all the inflection and tone preserved and stuff.”

“Yeah relax dude. We're not here to harsh your flow or nothin.” Dave says. 

Karkat looks chastened and not like he's going to explode into another frothing rage for the time being. Instead he wiggles down further into his pile of junk. 

That is fucking adorable right there. 

“Ok now I really gotta get onto my essay. Night Karkat.” John says, leaving his phone on the coffee table where it can serve as translator for Karkat.

“Yeah, g'night dude.”

Dave starts to follow John out to their shared room but an electronic voice stops him. “Wait.”

“Yeah?” John says, turning back too.

“Thanks. For all of this. You didn't have to help me. I want you both to know that I appreciate it. I can be kind of an asshole, and I certainly don’t try to curb that side of myself, yet you helped me anyway, so thanks.”

“No sweat, Karkat. We'll see you in the morning.” Dave says, and follows John out of the room, flicking the light switch off on his way out.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008624265/in/dateposted-public/)

***

It's not a very restful night for John. He almost resents Dave, who is lying beside him and falls asleep like the it’s nothing. 

John’s dead tired after spending the last few hours polishing up his essay but as soon as his head hits the pillow his thoughts are racing. 

They have an alien in their dorm. A real life Alternian is living with them while said Alternian is hiding from the alien authorities. They have an extraterrestrial fugitive on their guest couch!

What if the fucking alien authorities come here! What the fuck would John do against one of those giant alien adults they always see on the news whenever some important human has to go talk to the Trolls for whatever reason! Absolutely shit all, that’s what he’d do!

And also Karkat seems to be just a kid or something? Will this come down to one of those classic movie seneroes where the alien mom comes looking for its offspring and terrorises the humans who are ‘ _protecting_ ’ it.

Fuck. He should stop thinking about this.

He turns over onto his side and snuggles further against Dave's back. Dave doesn't react. Dave is the sort of person who ignores all the noises John is making in the dorm but will instantly wake up to the specific sound of the squeaking of the roof tiles and things like that. 

The warmth of Dave's back comforts him anyway, even if Dave isn't awake to talk him out of his spiraling thoughts.

Besides, if they do things right, no one will know they have an alien adolescent living with them. The voice collar will let Karkat speak normal English and they can just put makeup on him or something to disguise him further if he does have to leave the relative safety of the dorm. Easy. 

There is absolutely nothing that could go wrong with that plan. 

With his worries bought under control, John drifts off to sleep.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008624305/in/dateposted-public/)

 

Awareness comes back to John when something jostles the bed. He blinks open his eyes to see Dave heading scratching his ass as he pulls himself out of bed. Bright morning light shines through a gap in the curtains and Dave's shades are quick to appear on his face like they do every morning. 

Blugh. He didn’t sleep very well. Dave must be getting up for classes. It's not like John doesn't have to get up too but he’s feeling less than his usual morning self after his late night playing procrastination catch up.

He pulls himself out of bed anyway and feels a thrill go through him as he remembers their guest in the other room. 

Holy shit. They have an _Alternian_ living with them. 

John is quick to duck into the adjacent bathroom and have the shortest shower of his life while Dave fucks around picking an outfit for the day. John doesn't know why Dave bothers with all that fashion nonsense. They're at college. It's not like anyone cares what they wear. Dave could rock up in bright red pajamas and a cape and no one would look at him twice. But he can’t deny that Dave’s ass looks bodacious in those skinny jeans.

So even though Dave gets up first it's John who pulls on some clothes first and wanders out into the living room-slash-kitchen to greet their guest alien. “Morning Karkat! How was your sleep?” The translator lady's voice comes out from John’s phone where it’s still laying on the coffee table croaking its translation into the quiet room.

Karkat’s pile of stuff has drooped slightly onto the floor overnight but it has actually stayed together surprisingly well for a jumble of random shit. 

John can't see any sign of Karkat in there. Then the pile shudders slightly - a delayed reaction to John's greeting?

“Uhhhh, Karkat? You in there buddy?” The pile shifts some more, a pair of balled up socks that John hopes are clean tumble to the floor, and a small orange nub pokes out from the top of the pile. “Oh, hey! Karkat. Are you ready to get up and face the rest of humanity!”

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008623085/in/dateposted-public/)

Dave's voice suddenly comes from behind him in the direction of their shared bedroom. “Could you make that sounds more threatening. I don't think he's shat himself in fear yet.” 

“What was wrong with what I said? You want to come to school with us don't you Karkat?” Karkats messy black hair can now be seen above a pair of squinting gray eyes. Somehow he looks more bewildered and exhausted than when John left him the night before.

“What are you two fucks yammering on about. I just got to sleep.” He closes his already squinted eyes. It seems even that much light is too bright for him. John wonders where Dave’s spare shades ended up in all that junk on the sofa. “Can you just leave me in peace. I would be so fucking grateful if you could just fuck off for twelve hours and do whatever humans do in a place that isn't right next to my ears.” 

“Yeah, man.” Dave says in John's direction. “What were you even thinking. We can't just take him with us to class. He’s on the run from the authorities and it's not like he looks human. His complexion is downright palid not to mention those orange nubs.”

How did John not think of that. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He was just so excited to have a Troll living with them that he didn't think to consider that other people might rat Karkat out. 

“Oops sorry!” Karkat has fucked his head back into the darkness of his trash mound. “Though we're going to have to do something to disguise him quick. Room Inspection is tomorrow.” 

John thinks he almost sees Dave's eyes widen behind his shades but they are too opaque for him to be sure. “Well. Fuck.”

“What's inspection?” John's phone translates from the table. It must have picked up Karkat’s muttered response though John himself didn’t hear him speak. 

“Inspection is where some psido-official adult humans come and search our dorm to make sure we aren't doing drugs or punching holes in all the walls or nothing. Though I think they might not like us hosting an alien fugitive either. In fact I think they might even report us on it.” Dave explains.

Karkat's head pops back up out of the pile. “What!” 

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Me and John will think of something to get you safely out of their way tomorrow, right John?”

“Yeah! Don't worry Karkat. You just get some more sleep. We'll sort it all out before tomorrow. And hey! We already have the translation collar arriving today. That's a start!”

A grumble comes from Karkat's retreating head but their decisive words seem to have calmed him down. John is sure they will come up with a plan before the room inspection people come anyway. Dave wouldn't make assurances unless he had some sort of plan to back them up. 

***

Before the humans leave their shared hive they spend an ungodly amounts of nose eating breakfast. In the end Karkat’s hunger wins out over his exhaustion and he leaves his pile just long enough to eat the strange human food then slink back. Finally, silence descends. Still, Karkat tosses and turns in his hastily constructed pile for what feels like hours.

He had spent last night quietly exploring his new living quarters, tiptoeing like the skilled Laughassasson he is. 

The conclusion he came to was that this hive was miserably small and that he had landed head first in the midst of a couple of poor overly friendly losers. In other words; his type of people.

At one point he pressed a button on the side of a pane of framed black glass and it started spewing noise and light into the room, disrupting the still silence and sending Karkat into a panic until he managed to find the button to turn it off. 

As he said, he is a skilled Laughassasson.

But now the sun has come up and he is hiding in his pile waiting for sleep. It would help if the window light filters weren't flimsy pieces of shit that couldn't block light if it sneezed on them, but like hell is he leaving his pile to try and fix that particular problem. It can fuck right off. Instead he’s going to bury his head in the stone granules. And by stone granules he means the pile he constructed from his hosts’ living block trash. 

Fuck. Is this going to be the rest of his life? Holed up in a shitty hovel of a living compound with two pathetic alien sub-adults?

And of course he's having an existential crisis while he's trying to sleep. It's not as if he can blame it on the lack of spoor either. He's been living and sleeping without spoor for perigees now. Over time the nightmares abated somewhat and his insomnia crept back down to its normal irritating level. 

Maybe it's the fact that he never had a pile large enough to cover himself as a stowaway or maybe it's the strange mammalian smell that permeates the room that must just be the smell of human. Maybe it’s that he’s around people again. He got used to sleeping behind creates in dark corners with only the vague smells of overworked adults to tell him there were even other Trolls around. 

He wishes his fucking brain would shut up. Gog, this is the comfiest pile he's had since he left Alternia, he's safer than he's been since before then. Now would be a great fucking time to let his guard down and actually fucking sleep. 

This isn't helping. No matter how much he tries yelling at himself in his pan it never helps him get to sleep. At this rate the humans are going to be back before he even rests. 

The night didn't feel like it was any longer or shorter than an Alternian night so that's a relief though for all Karkat knows it could be completely out of sync. It’s not like he trusts his current sleep deprived state to make those types of calls.

The perigees spent as a stowaway could have wreaked havoc on Karkat's perception of time. For all he knows it could be Karkat's wriggling day! He sure doesn’t have any fucking clue!

Fuck. 

The day stretches on.

Somehow, in amongst Karkat's endless chaotic thoughts, Karkat falls asleep. Which means he wakes up with a start and a flail when John bursts in the front door with a cheery, “Good evening!” in perfect Alternian speech. Karkat's pile is now scattered all over the floor.

“What the bile snorting fuck is going on!” Karkat yells back at him. “Who taught you Alternian.” All synapses are firing in Karkat’s pan and they are not happy about being woken up so suddenly. 

“Oh shoot,” John says, “I didn’t get that. I forgot to put the earpiece in. Hang on.”

Dave says something short and hissy in english and walks past Karkat. Neither of them seem to take notice of Karkat's scattered pile. It is in disarray. It is a travesty. Thank gog for not giving a fuck.

“Got it! Now I can understand you, haha!” Why is the John human still speaking Alternian. Sometimes common sense decides ‘fuck this’ and leaves Karkat's life without even a final cheery fucking wave. 

“What the fuck, John. Why can you speak Alternian now!?” Karkat asks. 

“Oh right. Did you forget? A ordered a translation collar. Isn't it great!”

“Right. Well. Fuck me then I guess.” He did forget. Somehow, in amongst all the things he experienced yesternight he forgot this one important nugget of knowledge. He blames his sleep deprived state at the time. 

“Here, you try it.” John fiddles with the back of his neck where a circle of black fabric sits. It must be the translation collar. 

Karkat really is a fucking idiot. On John it's glaringly out of place. He should have spotted it right away. 

John says something in english, holding out the collar for Karkat to take. 

Before Karkat can extract himself from what's left of his pile and take it from John he is startled by more human taking noises behind him. Dave leans against the humans respiteblock doorway. 

John laughs at whatever Dave said. And now Karkat just feels vulnerable. They’re talking about him he can just tell. Before he can be overwhelmed by any more unpleasant feelings he scrambles out of his pile and over to John. 

John, rather than handing the collar over, pulls it back and makes a spinning gesture with his hand. Why does he want Karkat to turn around? This must be some sort of weird Earth ritual like the fist bump thing. 

Dave says something else Karkat can't understand. Fucking fine. If it will get him the translator faster he will oblige John's human antics. He turns to face Dave were the human is still leaning against the door on the other side of the room. 

Dave just keeps fucking talking doesn't he - Oh. John's hand brushes past Karkat's cheek as he brings the collar over Karkat’s head and Karkat freezes. John's hand just grazed his cheek. It was the softest thing he has ever felt, barely even my making contact. Karkat's thoughts go wafting out of his ear holes as John positions the collar around Karkat's neck and fastens it at the back. 

Yet even as this is happening Karkat is still looking Dave right in his shades. Karkat’s vision has gone soft and floaty and filled with images of Dave’s jaunty leaning. 

Then John pulls the hair back from over Karkat's ear and Karkat full on shivers at the sensation. John sticks something become Karkat’s ear, then the same with the other ear. Karkat's face tingles.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008624425/in/dateposted-public/)

“It is working? Can you hear me?” John says from behind him. This time there is the slightest delay as John speaks English, which is then overlaid by Alternian in Karkat's ear. 

“Yeah.” Karkat says. Then he shakes himself. What is he even doing. He feels like he's been shot through the sternum by a sudden thorn of pity. Does John even know what he's doing? Dave sure doesn't seem to know by the way he's been just standing there watching the whole time. 

“Thank fucking Christ.” Dave says, “This is going to be so much easier than the whole phone method. Now we can get on with the rest of it.” then he disappears back into John and Dave's block. 

“Wait. What rest of it?” Karkat calls after him, the collar hums at his throat and then spews English out, masking his Alternian words with English ones he can only hope are accurate. John isn't laughing at his expense so he can only assume the device is set correctly. “What rest of it?” he says to John instead. 

“We went to a dollar store and got supplies after classes ended. Don't worry. By the time we're done with you, people won't even notice you're not human!” John looks way too cheerful for what sounds like humiliating wiggler dress up games to Karkat but then again, John's not the one they’re going to be experimenting on is he?

Before Karkat can refuse or complain or something like that Dave comes back and dumps a shitload of face painting instruments on the low table. 

“What the shit is all that for?” Karkat asks, curling his lip in distaste. 

“I don't know dude. I just grabbed whatever makeup looked the most useful and went with it.” 

“Am I hearing you correctly? Did you just say you have no idea what the fuck you're doing?” Karkat says, outraged.

Dave picks up one of the larger pots of human colored face cream. “It's not like it's hard. All we have to do is smear this on the bits of skin that are showing and we're all good.”

“Look -” John turns around and riffles through the bag that he dropped when he walked in. “- We even got you a turtleneck so we don't have to put as much makeup on. Isn't that genius!”

“If that's how low the genius bar is for you then I don't even want to know how you scale.”

“Come on. I thought it was a great idea. But yes fine we have no idea what we're doing with all this makeup crap. I can talk to an _actual_ makeup genius if that'll make you feel better.”

“You thinkin’ Rose.” Dave asks John. “She would be the most competent person we know to ask about this crap. You're not thinking of telling her about Karkat are you.”

“Nah. I'm just going to ask her how to properly put this foundation stuff on and not mention what it's for.”

“Better you than me. She is going to rip into you, bro. Everyday she studies psychology she gets stronger.”

“I know. But it's a sacrifice in willing to make.”

John would really do that for him? Karkat isn't exactly sure what taking to this Rose human entails but he can tell John is making a huge sacrifice for his sake. Even Dave is doing him favors. He bought all this face paint stuff for Karkat to help him hide. And what does Karkat give them in return? Their own junk scattered all over their hive and ungrateful bitchy remarks. 

“You would really do that for me?” Karkat asks, voice small. 

Dave and John both turn back to him, pulled out of their conversation about the Rose human. 

“Hey, we said we'd help you.” Dave says, “That ain't a thing that's changed just because we came up against a little difficulty.”

“Don't worry Karkat. Rose isn't that scary. I can definitely handle any psychological bullshit she throws at me without giving you away. It's not like she isn't going to help me if I ask for it. She's my friend.” 

“Strong words John but I know you've been avoiding letting her have a go at the ol’ Egbert brain for months now.”

“This is for a good cause.”

Fuck. John is sacrificing himself. Karkat can't help the small ache gathering in his sternum. John and Dave are giving so much to protect him. 

But they're human. Do they even understand pity? Or do they do this for every lost soul they find?

He can't think about that now. 

 

Dave cooks something spicy and oddly sweet for the evening meal which Karkat picks through until his plate is clean, still not sure if he likes the strange Earth flavours. The meat is good if nothing else though less rich than the grub meat he's used to. 

When he asks they say it's squawkbeast meat from a type of commonly eaten Earth bird. Strange.

John then wants to show Karkat some of his Earth movies which turn out to be highly entertaining. Dave curls up on the couch next to Karkat and spends the half the time explaining human cultural nuances Karkat doesn't understand and the other half making fun of John's choice in movies to John's constant annoyance. 

Karkat still can’t pin down what quadrant they fall under. The way they show affection and how they interact with each other shows signs of all four quadrants. Maybe it's a human thing. It could be that their version of quadrants are configured completely differently than for Trolls. 

They sure seem to be waxing pale for Karkat. But then again they might not even have the four quadrants. For all he knows they might only have _three_ or even _twelve_. Anything could be possible on this bitch of an Earth.

John throws some of his popcorn at Dave, retaliation for Dave's constant bad talking about John's choice in movies. Dave laughs and buries himself under a pillow. Karkat has no idea what quadrant that sort of interaction would fall under. That's the sort of playful fighting he would have partook in with his lusus - not a quadrantmate. 

He would call it kismesissitude if John seemed genuinely annoyed, which Karkat highly doubts - popcorn shows no real threat to Dave's wellbeing. 

He would nail their relationship to one of the red quadrants by how often they touch affectionately but neither moirallegiance nor matespritship fits for their specific human dynamic.

It's boggling. And Karkat is someone who prides himself in his knowledge of the quadrants. 

By the end of the movie marathon Karkat has spent more time analyzing his hosts than the Earth movies. 

The action-packed adventure movies John seems to favor do nothing for Karkat apart from the odd cultural nuances they help him understand. So far they have only shown one type of romance too. A sort of fake quasi-matespritship that seems nothing like whatever relationship John and Dave have together. 

It's only a few hours after midnight when John starts yawning in his chair. Karkat knows that the humans stayed up just for him. Humans are diurnal and it's well past sundown. 

“uaghhhhh, we better head off to bed.” John says, switching the viewing screen off and blinking tired eyes in Karkat’s direction. “You might want to try and sleep early tonight too. The plan is to take you with us tomorrow and that means being awake for most of the day.” He gets out of his chair and stretches as he talks.

“I can stay awake, don't worry about that.” Karkat’s pretty sure the anxiety of being out in public with only a shitty disguise for protection will keep him wide awake. 

John frowns at Dave who hasn't moved a muscle from where he has been sitting slouched next to Karkat throughout the conversation. “I think he’s fallen asleep. Honestly, Dave is the worst movie watching buddy. The only time he shuts the fuck up is when he conks out and misses half of it.” John says, his tone too fond to be really annoyed.

Now that Karkat thinks back, it does seem Dave subtly feel asleep sometime during the last film. His commentary tapered off and then he just sat there with his arms folded. 

“Should we move him?” Karkat asks. That is sort of his designated sleeping couch and all. If he wants to get some sleep he will have to reconstruct the pile and he sort of doesn’t want to bury dave under it when he does. 

“He's too heavy. I'll just wake him up.” John tiptoes round to the back of the couch to wake Dave, which seems idiotic in Karkat's opinion. Dave is obviously deep in the slumber throws from the way Karkat and John's loud conversation hasn't yet woken him. It's not a good idea to wake people up from deep sleep. Everybody knows that.

Karkat is just about to say something along those lines when John tilts Dave's head back and kisses Dave fill on the lips.

Dave fails to flail around and attack everyone in sight in the usual way a woken Troll would. Then again, he is only human. 

Instead Dave presses up into the kiss. That is fucking adorable. For a second Karkat feels like he's watching a romcom, John waking his sleeping matesprit with a tender kiss that instantly dissipates the rage caused by Dave’s night terrors, but no. This is happening right in front of him.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/138449925@N02/46008624505/in/dateposted-public/)

***


End file.
